A View From The Back Of The Room: Spectral Voice (Live Review By Matt Bladen)

Spectral Voice, Flowering Blade, Tides Of Sulphur & Cryptworm, Fuel Cardiff

So another mid-week gig at Fuel Cardiff and again another mix of acts. I once again was accompanied by Mr Deeper Shades himself for three acts I'd never seen and an entire show that was new to him.

First at bat were Bristol death metal act Cryptworm (7), the trio took to the stage and plowed a furrow with some evil sounding death metal, no for me the bass was not audible for much of their set with the nasty guitar and loud as hell drums dominating except for on one song where the bass was only audible for some slinky bass leads. An impressive first viewing of some down the line death metal from just over the bridge

Next up were a band I'm very familiar with Tides Of Sulfur (7) are probably one of the angriest bands on the South Wales scene with their politically inspired music that blends sludge, death and even some hardcore sounds was perfect for a gig taking place on the week of one of the most important elections ever. Just two songs in the guitar cab seemed to fail from the sheer fuzzy force as Snake fixed it Chris and Tom noodled a little before they returned to the intensity ending with the raging 'Orrible Cunt which broke down at the end, they weren't everyone's cup of tea but I'm always love watching Tides play live.

Then things got weird...Flowering Blade (0) were next now this was a member of the headliners playing an industrial/noise set, now noise I struggle with but at least they often use instruments what this was, was one long pulse with the occasional stab to change the sound, but essentially he was 'playing' one long stomach churning pulse. Now it was less a performance rather live intro that eventually segued into the headliners but I'm sorry, it lost the attention of much of the room, especially me who basically generates pulses of different types for a living.

Still with the previous 'set' coming to an end, it was time for Spectral Voice (6) who enveloped the room with doom/death metal, now considering they feature 3/4's of Blood Incantation you could expect sci-fi technically but this is very earthbound, yes it's ominous and very bloody heavy, but it's also really, really repetitive (and I love doom) especially after the appalling intro. Unfortunately after two drawn out numbers we'd had enough and left walking into the miserable night reflecting that some times it's the more underground acts that make the night.